The invention relates to a stacking apparatus for stacking sheet-like textile fabrics or the like on top of one another, and is especially adapted to be used with fusing devices which apply glue to textile fabrics in the manufacture of outer clothing. The apparatus, has, connected to a feed mechanism, a stacking table mounted to be movable vertically, a clamping plate which can be pressed thereon, and a stacking rake which can be reciprocated forward and backwards between the stacking table and the clamping plate in the conveying direction of the feed mechanism, and onto which the fabrics are conveyed by the feed mechanism, in order to be deposited on the stacking table.
In a known stacking apparatus as disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,462, the textile fabrics, when conveyed onto the stacking rate, actuate by means of their front edges a photoelectric detector located in the region of a strip-off rake. The result of actuating this photoelectric detector is that the stacking rake is moved in the conveying direction of the feed mechanism, the front part of the fabrics being deposited on the stacking table, which is located under the stacking rake, as a result of the mode of operation of the stacking rake and of a strip-off rake interacting therewith. During this time, the stacking rake is moved out of the clamping region of the clamping plate, so that the latter can subsequently be pressed onto the stacking table, including with it the fabrics, the stacking table being lowered each time by at least the thickness of the deposited fabric. When this has been effected, both the clamping plate and the stacking rake are moved back again into their original positions, although, because of the prevailing conditions, the backward movement of the stacking rake takes place only after the backward movement of the clamping plate. Only after that is the stacking apparatus ready for the next stacking operation.
A disadvantage of the known stacking apparatus is that the stacking rake can be moved back into its basic position only after the clamping plate has been moved back into its basic position, as a result of which the output of the stacking apparatus is lower than that of the gluing device. A further disadvantage of the known stacking apparatus is to be seen in the fact that, when they are conveyed onto the stacking rake and in the course of the depositing operation, the fabrics are deformed and/or displaced more or less markedly, depending on their constitution, for example a light or heavy quality of material and/or smaller or larger dimensions. The deformation is revealed, for example, in the formation of corrugations due to pushing-up (in the conveying operation) and in the form of bulges resembling the latter (in the depositing operation).